Accidentally quick-formatted my 2TB disk instead of my USB stick helllp!

Rya33

I was using Rufus to create a bootable Linux USB, got distracted, selected the wrong drive letter, and hit format. It was a quick format, took like 3 seconds. I realized my mistake instantly, panicked, and pulled the plug on my PC. It’s an internal Samsung 980 Pro. Is the data still there since it was just a quick format, or am I completely cooked?

BitWise_Guru

Rya33
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but since it's an NVMe SSD, a quick format triggers the TRIM command specifically the Dataset Management Deallocate command. Unlike traditional HDDs where 'quick format' just wipes the partition table and leaves the data blocks intact, TRIM tells the SSD controller that those blocks are no longer needed. The controller immediately unmaps them. Even if the physical bits haven't been garbage-collected yet, the drive firmware will return straight zeroes if you try to read those sectors now.

Xanthus_TechCore

Rya33

Hi! You're not necessarily cooked. Since it was only a quick format, there's still a chance the files are recoverable—as long as you don't write anything else to that SSD.

Here's what I'd do:

Leave the drive untouched.
Connect it to another Windows PC if possible (or boot from another drive).
Run a recovery tool like MyRecover and perform a Deep Scan on the formatted SSD. It can recover files from many quick-formatted NTFS partitions if the data hasn't been overwritten.

The only concern is that your drive is a Samsung 980 Pro (SSD). If Windows has already issued a TRIM command after the format, recovery becomes much more difficult. But since you stopped using the drive immediately, it's definitely worth trying before doing anything else.

Good luck—I hope you caught it in time.

Strictly_POSIX

BitWise_Guru

The drive firmware will return straight zeroes if you try to read those sectors now.

Well, actually, that depends entirely on whether the drive supports DZAT or DRAT (Deterministic Read after TRIM), or neither. While the Samsung 980 Pro definitely implements DZAT, some older firmware revisions or low end DRAM less drives don't immediately clear the translation layer tables if power is cut within milliseconds of the command execution. It's rare, but not an absolute 'always'.

Drive_Doc_Pro

Strictly_POSIX
Technically true, but OP explicitly stated it finished formatting and then they panicked and pulled the plug. The FTL mapping table updates take microseconds on modern highend controllers like the Elpis controller inside the 980 Pro. Splitting hairs about DRAT/DZAT edge cases just gives OP false hope for software-level recovery when the logical mapping is already obliterated.

Drive_Doc_Pro

Oof, the unopened backup box is a classic tragedy. Look, ignore the theoretical debates for a second.

Leave that drive UNPLUGGED. Do not boot into Windows with it attached, because Windows will run scheduled optimization defrag/TRIM in the background and seal the deal. If this data is worth thousands of dollars to you, stop DIYing right now and send it to a professional lab with a PC 3000 Flash recovery setup. They can sometimes dump the NAND chips directly or bypass the FTL controller before background garbage collection kicks in. If you absolutely must DIY, clone it sector by sector first using an offline hardware duplicator or a Linux live USB, never scan the live drive.

Clumsy_Clicker

Listen to the doctor, OP! I did the exact same thing last year. I thought I could save money, downloaded a cracked version of some shady 'Super Free Recovery Pro', and kept scanning the live drive for 8 hours straight. The drive got boiling hot, the controller finished its background garbage collection, and it permanently wiped everything. Ended up with a bunch of corrupted 0KB files and a bricked partition. Don't be a hero, don't run random software on it.

OpeKey

Clumsy_Clicker
Thanks for the warning, man. It's sitting on my desk right now looking like a tiny, expensive metal tombstone. Professional labs cost an absolute fortune!

Bash_Or_Die

If you are forced to go the DIY route due to budget, do NOT use Windows GUI utilities. Boot into a lightweight Linux live USB and use `gnu ddrescue`. Run it with a logfile so it can resume if the drive drops off the PCIe bus:

`sudo ddrescue -b 4096 -d -v /dev/nvme0n1 /media/backup/ssd_image.img /media/backup/recovery.log`

Once you have the raw `.img` file on your external drive, keep the original SSD safely unplugged, and run `photorec` or `testdisk` on the image file to carve out file headers.

DDK

Bash_Or_Die
Ah, yes. Recommending raw block-level command-line tools to a guy who literally just formatted his entire main drive by accident. What could possibly go wrong? One tiny typo swapping `/dev/nvme0n1` and `/dev/sda` and OP will accidentally overwrite his backup drive too. Classic Linux community advice right here.

NSA_Watcher

DDK
Honestly, even if he had the money, I wouldn't trust those data recovery labs. You're handing over your entire digital life—private photos, tax documents, browser cookies, maybe even crypto private keys—to some random technician in a backroom. Who knows where those cloned images get archived? Data breaches happen to these labs too. Plus, if OP had BitLocker or any form of encryption enabled, a quick format wipes the metadata headers containing the master key anyway. A lab can't recover cryptographically shredded data.

OpeKey

NSA_Watcher
You're conflating two different issues. Reputable labs have strict NDA and ISO cleanroom protocols, they aren't looking at your vacation photos. But you actually made a great point about encryption. If BitLocker was active on that drive, the quick format destroys the Volume Master Key (VMK) encrypted blocks at the beginning of the partition. Without that key, the entire rest of the drive is just high-entropy cryptographic noise. Even if TRIM didn't wipe it, encryption makes mathematical recovery impossible.

OpeKey

Drive_Doc_Pro
So what you guys are saying in SMART language is... OP's 5 years of memories just got Thanos snapped into the digital void. F in the chat. Local backups are like seatbelt everyone thinks they don't need one until they're flying through the windshield.

SuzuKB

Can't see any idea except for data recovery tool…☹